Champagne

We took a long vacation from our trip between Alsace and Champagne,
but I hope you enjoyed the last article about wines to enjoy during warm
(hot, here!) weather. So, on to another French wine region...
Champagne!

Everywhere sparkling wine is made, it is always
distinguished from Champagne, even though all of the best sparkling
wines are made in a virtually identical manner - Methode champenoise
(meaning second fermentation). The reason Champagne is held apart from,
if not above, all other bubblies is not necessarily because it's better
but because the region is unique. It is France's northernmost
viticultural district. The Champagne grapes struggle for ripeness here,
producing base wines of high acidity and nuanced flavor, ideal for
making the sleekest and subtlest of sparkling wines. The soil is chalk
and limestone.

Chardonnay
(approximately 27%) adds less alcohol, delicacy, elegance, finesse and
freshness and contributes to the acidity. Blanc de Blancs are made
solely from the chardonnay grape.

Champagne, along with Port
and Sherry, is one of the world's most complicated wines to make.
Because black grapes are the majority and no color is wanted,
handpicking and gentle pressing is necessary for rich sugars and
desirable acids. Varietal character is not the object (like Burgundy).
Much of the flavor and style comes from aging on lees and the overall
terroir of the region. The producers in Champagne are "houses" and there
are about 140 houses.

The first fermentation goal is to produce
still wine with high acid and moderate alcohol to serve as a base. It's
generally done in stainless steel or concrete, but some houses use old
oak casks. For non-vintage Champagne, production is house style (same
style, year to year) using stocks from different grape varieties,
vineyards, villages and vintages. Non-vintage is the norm at 85 percent
of all production. It can't be put on the market until one year after
bottling. Vintages, for vintage Champagne, are declared three times a
decade, on average, and the grapes must be 100 percent from that vintage
and can't be put on the market until three years after bottling (needs
five years on lees).

The second fermentation has a mixture of
wine, sugar and yeast added before the bottle is sealed with a temporary
crown cork that is designed to catch sediment. The natural carbon
dioxide (CO2) is trapped inside each bottle. The trapped CO2 will
eventually become Champagne's bubbles. Bottles are stored horizontally
in chalk cellars with a constant cool temperature to allow secondary
fermentation to take place. Wines are worked slowly over a period of
time from horizontal to vertical so the deposit slides gently down into
the crown cap and doesn't get shaken about. To eliminate sediment, two
processes take place: remuage, working the sediment on the side of the
bottle into the neck; and degorgement, removal of sediment from the
bottle by the pressure when the bottle is opened. To minimize the loss
of wine the neck of the bottle is frozen in brine solution and the ice
holds the now solid sediment in place. The crown cap is removed, ice
plug with sediment is ejected and the final cork inserted.

Champagne
styles are determined after second fermentation when the bottle is
topped up with a mixture of wine and cane sugar solution called liqueur
d'expedition:

Brut - less than 15 grams sugar/litre (g/l), driest

Extra Dry - 12-20 g/l

Sec - 17-35 g/l

Demi-Sec - 33-50 g/l

Doux - 50+ g/l, sweet

From
the vineyards of Champagne its wines have become the ones we use to
mark the most important moments in life. When we marry, when a child is
born, when we land a new job. Champagnes have a celebratory status no
other wine has.